Seeking a Joyous Journey Rule No 11 – Don’t Get Hung Up On Stuff…

Capitalism in America demands that we buy more and more stuff each year. Without that insatiable drive we simply couldn’t grow as a society today. I think that needs to be basically changed to match the successes of the rest of the world. Instead of requiring us to buy more this year that last, maybe we should spend it on our infrastructure or, here’s a wild thought, maybe making healthcare a right instead of a privilege! Ok, enought soapboxing for now, let’s get back to the point of this post.

In my day, we didn’t have massive closets of clothes. I don’t think the walk-in closet was even invented until the Reagan 80’s. 🙂 It seems today that even most young teenagers could now fill an eight foot closet with their wardrobes. I could carry all my clothing in a single normal size suitcase even after I graduated from college. I just didn’t see the need to have more than a half dozen changes of clothes, as I thought even that was extravagant. The 1927 farmhouse that we renovated two decades ago had closets about two feet wide!

In that regard, here is my next Joyous Journey rule to live by:

Rule#11 – Don’t get hung up on your stuff.

Some people think that having a joyous life means you have all the stuff you could ever dream about. To me, it is just the opposite. The less stuff you have the more joyous I seem to be. Trying to keep up with the latest Madison Ave trends is just not worth it. It is ridiculous that they are now selling jeans that are threadbare and have holes in places. In my mind it is better to just wear out the ones you already have instead of plucking down $50+ for pre-worn ones. One of my active projects this summer is to wean down my four foot closet space down to three or less. Anything I haven’t worn in the last two years goes to GoodWill.

We live in houses that our ancestors would never have dreamed of owning. It seems that the requirement today is 1,000 square feet per each person in the household. When our current house was built almost a hundred years ago less than 800 sq ft and we know that a family of six occupied that space in the 1950s. It is heartening to see that many young people today are joining the “tiny house” movement. They comfortably live in less than 400 sq ft of living space.

Before I go, I have to admit to you that I am not entirely innocent when it comes to stuff. I have a couple of previous Mac computers stored away along with at least three iPads and an older Apple watch. I could have lived with the older ones, but the new features available on the latest models lure me in. So, in that regard I need to practice what I preach I guess?

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2 thoughts on “Seeking a Joyous Journey Rule No 11 – Don’t Get Hung Up On Stuff…”

I have a few GoodWill bags going right now myself. One for clothing, and one for shoes. Isn’t it interesting how the first things we think we should get rid of is clothing? It’s difficult to get rid of technology, especially if we aren’t sure how to clean it of our personal details and such. Putting it back to factory specs is probably the easiest, but this doesn’t necessarily mean we want to part with it. Although GoodWill can’t accept my bathroom/kitchen cabinet cast-offs, I certainly can stop buying duplicates of things. That would cut down on buying more before the older stuff is totally empty. The hardest “things” to part with are those that have sentimental value, which makes me wonder how antique stores stay so well stocked. Hopefully, we don’t all have to die before those type of things are discarded. Thankfully, I’m not walking over or onto any of my “things” yet, and I don’t believe I ever will. I need my space!

Good morning Jen, thanks for your thoughts. I will be getting into that annual mode myself soon. Anything I haven’t worn for the last 3 years goes to them. Yeah, the older electronics stuff if more difficult to handle. I still have, stuffed away in drawers, four older generation cell phones, and a couple of iPads. Gotta do something with them too.